Local Muslims react to anti-American sentiment

September 17, 2012 at 2:59 AM CDT - Updated June 28 at 7:02 AM

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - As the American families affected by last week's attack on the U.S. Embassy in Libya cope with their grief, anti-American sentiment spreads globally as more Muslims respond to clips from an anti-Islamic movie produced in the United States.

"I think the video was a really strong ignition for what already was a powder keg," said LSU student Nicholas Pierce, an American Muslim.

Pierce and LSU grad student Ammar Qureshi along with Baton Rouge resident Jane Aslam believe the radical actions of some of their religious counter-parts will unfairly affect how Islam is perceived.

"How you handle society's bigotries and prejudices and other negative elements in a society is up to the people who live within that society," said Aslam.

According to Qureshi the violent uprisings in some Muslim communities come in areas of poverty and oppression and he adds ignorance can lead to a mishandling of frustration.

"When you don't have freedom of speech you don't understand the division of people and the government so when they see something on TV coming from the US they think of it as if President Obama himself made it. They don't see the difference."

All three of these local Muslims come from much different backgrounds but they all agree that violence is never the answer and that tolerance is the only way to move forward.

"At the end of the day patience will bring us together because basically we are the same people. I'm a Muslim, I'm an American and I can see that," added Pierce. "That's the end all solution."